This Chow Mein recipe tastes just like the takeaway. Stir-fry noodles with chicken, vegetables and king prawns (shrimp) in a tasty sauce; known as House Special Chow Mein.
*Post updated November 2025
However, you can of course leave the prawns out and make this chicken chow mein. Or, you can add pork or beef or both.
Chow mein noodles taste just like you get from the takeaway. Stir-frying is easy-peasy, and it really is up to you what else you fancy adding.
You really need a wok or a large skillet for this. You can buy a half-decent wok for under £20 over at Amazon.
What is chow mein?
Chow mein is basically stir-fried noodles with vegetables and sometimes meat or tofu; the name is a romanisation of the Taishanese chāu-mèn.The dish is popular throughout the Chinese diaspora and appears on the menus of most Chinese restaurants abroad. It is particularly popular in India, Nepal, the UK, and the US.
In this post, you can find out how to velvet chicken, a process that makes chicken really soft and tender using bicarbonate of soda (baking soda); it also works for beef.
It really does work, although you must remember to rinse off the bicarb before cooking! 😉
Ingredients
- fresh egg noodles
- skinless chicken fillets
- king prawns - raw
- garlic
- a mix of white and green cabbage, carrot, bean sprouts, red bell pepper and spring onions (scallions)
Chow mein marinade for chicken
- cornflour
- light soy sauce
- Shaoxing (Chinese rice wine) is available on Amazon or Sainsbury's
Chow mein sauce
- light soy sauce
- dark soy sauce
- oyster sauce
- brown sugar
- white pepper
How to make chicken chow mein just like the takeaway
Begin by getting your ingredients ready - either chop and slice the vegetables yourself or take a shortcut with a pre-packaged stir-fry veggie mix from the supermarket.
I’d suggest tipping them out and having a quick sort through - sometimes you’ll come across mingy bits, like the end of a cabbage, that you wouldn’t include if you’d chopped them yourself!
As a time-saving and cost-effective option compared to buying bean sprouts and other ingredients separately, they are most marvellous.
The full recipe is provided in the recipe card below. Simply stir-fry the chicken and garlic, add in the vegetables and prawns, then add the chow mein sauce and stir-fry until everything is cooked.
Then add the spring onions and a splash of your favourite chilli sauce, if using.
That's it, now prepare to dive in!
Have you tried this recipe? Please leave a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ star rating in the recipe card below!
Special Chow Mein
You can, of course, use pork or beef instead of chicken, or a mix.
Ingredients
- 400g pack of fresh egg noodles - not dried noodles
- 2 skinless chicken fillets - sliced into thin strips
- 8-12 raw king prawns (shrimp) - shelled and deveined
- 3 fat cloves garlic - minced or very finely chopped
- 320g pack of supermarket-ready stir-fry vegetables, containing a mixture of bean sprouts, carrot, green cabbage, Chinese leaf, bamboo shoots, water chestnuts and red pepper.
- 2 spring onions (scallions) - sliced
- 1 teaspoon of cornflour
- 1 teaspoon of light soy sauce
- 1 teaspoon of Shaoxing (Chinese rice wine)
- 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
- 2 teaspoons dark soy sauce
- 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
- 2 teaspoons granulated (table) sugar
- a good pinch of white pepper
- 2 tablespoons water
- a splash of your favourite chilli sauce
Instructions
- Add the thinly sliced chicken to the bowl with the marinade, then mix it well. Set it aside for 10 minutes while you mince the garlic and slice the spring onions.
- Combine all the chow mein sauce ingredients in a small bowl, mix well, and set aside.
- Heat your wok over a high heat and add a tablespoon of oil.
- Add the chopped garlic and stir-fry for just a few seconds, making sure it doesn’t burn, as that would make it taste bitter.
- Stir the chicken and add it, along with the marinade, to the wok. Stir-fry the chicken for about a minute, just until it’s partially cooked at this point.
- Now add the vegetables and stir-fry for a few minutes, keeping everything moving about in the wok.
- Add the prawns and stir-fry until they start to turn pink.
- Now add the noodles to the wok along with the chow mein sauce.
- Continue to stir-fry until the noodles are well coated with the sauce and the chicken and prawns are properly cooked through. The prawns will be pink when properly cooked.
- If using chilli sauce, add it and stir well. Taste the mixture and add a pinch of sugar if needed.
- Throw in the spring onions, stir and serve straight away.
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